Neuroscience Podcasts to Seriously Send Those Brain Cells Firing

There’s only so much time one can dedicate to surfing Netflix, listening to Spotify or watching reality TV. At some point, you are adamantly looking for intellectual forms of entertainment. Enter podcasts- the audible version of blogs.

Those with a story-telling flair can keep one indulged for hours. Others that present educational or scientific content keep you intellectually engaged and listening to them are by no means a passive activity. If the podcast’s host has a dulcet tone and knows how to keep things moving, even stuff that you probably couldn’t care less about will become potentially interesting. Which brings us to the million dollar question- with a plethora of science podcasts available, which ones should you listen to? More specifically, are there podcasts that deal with Neuroscientific topics? This was the quest I took two months ago.  Below are some of the Neuroscience podcasts, in no particular order, which might be the answer to your curiosity or intellectual thirst.

1. You are not so smart

Image courtesy: David McRaney, https://bit.ly/2yckkno

Host: David McRaney
Average length: 50-60 min.
How active? : very. uploads content every month, sometimes even twice a month.
The good: Compares different psychology/neurosci topics relevant to current topics and affairs in everyday world. His podcast episodes always leave you feeling sober or humbled by the fact that how subjective, unpredictable and sometimes fickle our human selves can be. Except for a few mins of ads in the beginning and centre, there are no distractions. He also has an excellent way of introducing his guests in that he first gives an overview of the topic and then lets his guest take centre stage. He also doesn’t ramble or try to chime in with his own opinions during the interviews. Plus his voice is deep and lucid which makes it easier to continue listening to him for extended periods of time.
Start where: Tribal Psychology; Selfie; The Dunning-Kruger effect (but really too many good episodes here)
What’s missing? The podcast is overall excellent and you are seriously missing out if you have not heard of YANSS before. Perhaps the only thing you might find lacking would be that this is not, strictly speaking, a Neuroscience specific podcast but borders around Psychology, Pop culture, Neuroscience and Behaviour [1].


2. Brain Science Podcast

Image courtesy: Virginia Campbell, https://bit.ly/1BtSxxs

Host: Ginger Campbell, M.D
Average length: 60 min
How active? : very. technical and less technical content uploaded regularly since 2008
The good: This one is for hard-core Neuroscience enthusiasts. If you are a grad student and are looking for something other than the oft-repeated topics such as reproducibility crisis, women/diversity in STEM than this IS the place for you. There are 100+ episodes available as Dr. Campbell’s podcast has been one of the longest running Neuroscience podcasts to date. She discusses really thought-provoking books that are related to different subdivisions of Neuroscience and has interviewed many leading experts in the field including Drs. Michael Gazzaniga, Christof Koch, Temple Grandin and György Buzsáki to name a few. Listening to Dr. Campbell is like having your extremely well-educated grandma let you in on the intellectual discussions she has with all of her guests.
Start where: Counting Neurons with Dr. Suzana Herculano-Houzel ; John Medina on Aging Well
What’s missing? Some of the older episodes require premium subscription (but full access is possible at 5 bucks a month) so listening to Dr. Koch or Dr. Gazzaniga comes at a small cost. However, you can listen to the more recent episodes uploaded after 2013 for free. All podcasts come with transcripts as well as links to discussed books and papers. Beware though as some of the links may not work due to website revamping [2].

3. Shrink Rap Radio

Image courtesy: David Van Nuys, https://bit.ly/2IxwBMF

Host: David Van Nuys, Ph.D
Average length: 60 min
How active? : very. There are almost 3-4 episodes posted every month.
The good: Dr. Van Nuys also has a talent of making his guests feel at ease and asks thought-provoking questions. There’s also a decent amount of content related to mind-body-soul science if you are into that stuff. Together with the Brain Science Podcast, this is one of the oldest running podcast I could find with quality content.
Start where: Quieting your inner critic and rising above social anxiety with Ellen Hendriksen; The Body of Sex with Sarah Byrden ; The Silent Epidemic of REM Sleep Loss with Rubin Naiman
What’s missing? This is more of a Psychology podcast but has close overlap with Cognitive Neuroscience because of the topics covered. Some episodes are longer than 60 mins so reserve this one for weekends [3].

  4.  A Neuroscientist Explains

Image courtesy: Max Sanderson, https://bit.ly/2Ilyx6M

Host: Daniel Glaser, Ph.D
Average length: 30-40 mins
How active? : Intermittent. Has two seasons out (1^st season: 8 episodes, 2^nd season: 7 episodes); one in 2017 and the other in 2018.
The good: This one’s for all the British accent lovers. The episodes have a very soothing background music so that it literally calmed my anxiety during stressful morning commutes. Quite accessible, user-friendly and the topics are quite relevant if you are interested in Neurosci but don’t know where to start
Start where: A Neuroscientist explains: how music affects the brain; A Neuroscientist Explains: is the internet addictive? ; A neuroscientist explains: how the brain stores memories
What’s missing? The podcast is not very active so if you are looking for interviews and bringing yourself up-to-date with current trends, this isn’t the one [4].

  5. Smart drug smarts

Host: Jesse Lawler (permission pending)

Average length: 40-60 min
How active? : very. Content updated religiously
The good: This podcast has one of the most amusing introduction out of all science podcasts. The episodes are quite fast paced so if you cannot stand slow discussions, go for this one. Lawler is a self-proclaimed science fan boy and is an excellent host. The voice quality is excellent and all the podcast episodes come with detailed transcripts as well as summary notes. The website overall is very decently designed which makes spending time here more fun.
Start where:     Brain Implants – Medical and Beyond with Dr. Brett Wingeier; Head in the Game with Dr. John Sullivan; Cognitive Fallacies with Dr. Richard E. Nisbett ; What are “Fast-Spiking Interneurons”?; Placebo: the Power of the Mind to Heal
What’s missing? Lawler is quite enthusiastic and throws in a lot of slangs and casual phrases so those looking for more serious style discussions may not agree with his hosting style (not that I’m complaining) [5].

  6.  Neurotransmissions

Image courtesy: Joe Schumacher, https://bit.ly/2KJQjlh

Host: Ben Scholl, Ph.D., Joe Schumacher, Ph.D., and Misha Smirnov, Ph.D.
Average length: 30-40 mins
How active? : post content every other month. Haven’t been very active for the last 2 months though.
The good: started by post-docs at Max Planck, Florida, this podcast discusses latest topics in Neuroscience in an almost jargon-free manner. Quite accessible for the general audience in terms of content. Voice quality decent and all of the hosts are quite adept at making things moving and not chiming in too often. The general mood of the podcast is academic style and formal. Go for it if you are into interviews or seeking some inspiration.
Start where: Science writing and life living with Dr. Brett Mensh; Sunposium 2017: Part 2, Technological innovation with Drs. Ed Boyden & Viviana Gradinaru; Live from Sunposium 2017: Part 1, The Value of Scientific Knowledge with Dr. Thomas Südhof
What’s missing? Could be a bit dry at times. Needs some light-hearted humor [6].

7. Neuroscientists Talk Shop

Image courtesy: Neuroscientists Talk Shop, https://bit.ly/2IDc5cJ

Host: various including Salma Quraishi,Ph.D, Alfonso Apicella,Ph.D, Charles Wilson,Ph.D (and others)
Average length: 40 min
How active? : usually post 2-3 episodes every month but have not been very active recently.
The good: started by a group of professors and graduate students at UT San Antonio, this podcast is more hinging on the technical side. Guest scientists are invited in each episode and talk about their research. The questions are more symposium-style and the atmosphere is quite academic and scholarly. If you are looking for some inspiration on someone who is working on a similar topic to yours, maybe look here for some inspiration. Although the podcast has many moderators, the questions never get jumbled up so that everything is easy to follow. Also the podcast has no ads which means no distractions.
Start where: (Interview with) Rusty Gage, PhD ; Ann Graybiel PhD ; Dwight Bergles PhD
What’s missing? Sometimes voice quality not as crisp as you’d like it to be. Could be a bit dry and information-heavy as the time duration is only 40 mins [7].

8. Honourable mentions:
These include Neuroscience podcasts that are no longer active. Neuropod (Nature podcasts on Neuroscience) which ran till late 2015 [8]. The Naked Scientists (Naked Neuroscience) which stopped updating after 2014 [9]. Note that the Naked Scientists podcast on other science disciplines such as Genetics, Astronomy and so on are still regularly updated.

Image courtesy: Chris Smith, https://bit.ly/2IDMkcw

Word to the wise: avoiding mindless media consumption does not mean that your ears have to be glued to scientific podcasts. Cut your poor brain cells some slack and have some time off to digest all the information.

Did we miss any cool podcasts that talk about science and especially all-things-brain? Give us a shout out at cns-newsletter@charite.de about any potential hidden gems that you know.

by Zara Khan, MSc Student MedNeuro

[1] https://bit.ly/2yckkno
[2] https://bit.ly/2jYSpCi
[3] https://bit.ly/2rGYGpK
[4] https://bit.ly/2Ilyx6M
[5] https://bit.ly/2rM38Ui
[6] https://bit.ly/2rNOSuf
[7] https://bit.ly/2IDc5cJ
[8] https://go.nature.com/2rJtyG9
[9] https://bit.ly/2IDMkc

You Can Take a Course On (Calling) BS Now. For Real!

I present to you "Calling bullshit in the age of big data", a university-level course tackling bullshit in numbers, words and graphs rampant in the world around us.

You know a course will be off to a good start when the intro reads "The world is awash in bullshit…".  "Calling bullshit in the age of big data" is taught by Carl Bergstrom (biologist) and Jevin West (information scientist), two professors at the University of Washington. In case you didn’t get the memo, the course kicked off in Spring 2017 and is fully available online for free [1]. You can continue at self-paced tempo, as the lectures are divided into five or six parts of 3-12 min each.

Source: Twitter, used with permission

Combating New-School Bullshit
Allow me to elaborate a bit on why the course is totally worth your time. It begins with an introduction to bullshit, its philosophy, interesting examples and measures to refute it. Hilariously, during one point in the first lecture the professors called bullshit on their own bullshit by butchering the claims that they saw explosive growth in the course website’s visibility once it was up-and-running. This was all in a bid to explain "new-school bullshit" whereby people try to overwhelm others by fancy graphs. Aside from explaining statistical traps and trickery and big data gimmicks, the course offers useful ways to debunk bullshit even for the lay audience. Beware though: certain parts such as replication crisis and predatory publishing etc., may sound like a (very interesting) repetition of themes from the lab.

Ducks and Glass Slippers
There were certain parts that made me laugh long after I had finished the course and was reviewing my notes. First, the concept of data "ducks", coined by Edward Tufte. A duck is any graphic so heavily decorated with design elements that it distracts the reader with its visuals rather than communicating meaningful information. Another one was ''glass slippers'' (inspired by Disney’s Cinderella), which refers to forcefully trying to mold your data to a standard model.
Importantly, the professors defended science while exposing all the bullshit that comes with practicing it. They argued that science is not bullshit even amid a big reproducibility crisis because most of the hypotheses researchers come up with are at least plausible. Moreover, there are multiple ways to deviate from the null hypothesis. Science and replication are cumulative and conflicting results help to drive the field forward by compelling researchers to think of alternative explanations.
For those of you who just had a feel-good rush after reading that science is not completely a recipe for disaster, let’s go to the sobering part. The professors laid bare the factors that motivate scientists. And no, they don’t talk about the quest for the unknown or saving the humanity (get real!). Their premise is that just like all the other fields, people in science respond to incentives. Scientists are often driven to research for recognition [2], prestige and, most importantly, grant money and job security. Furthermore, Goodhart’s law (1975) [3] and Campbell’s law (1979) [4] also state that when a type of measure (number of citations in elite journals, for instance) becomes a target for researchers, it is no longer a good measure.

Practice fact-checking online

Lastly, much to my delight, the professors addressed the hotly debated issue of fake news as well. Money is the driving force behind fake news. Creating fake news stories is one thing but why do people spread them? Many factors contribute to this fast spread of bullshit, such as laziness to do some serious fact-checking, self-validation and sharing links just to increase social visibility. Social media is a free resource that gives everyone the opportunity to create and disseminate bullshit. However, it becomes a problem of even greater magnitude when reputable media also become an accomplice. Their aim is to take the lead in breaking the news and triggering people, by any means necessary, towards click-bait.

How to Call Out Someone on Their BS Effectively
So where does that leave us? As scientists, we have an even greater responsibility not to get carried away by the cancerous trend of sharing for the sake of social visibility. In order to efficiently call out a skeptical claim on its BS, collect all relevant information, double-check your facts, and run them by someone who knows more about the subject matter. If you err, admit your mistake, and admit it fast. Refute bullshit by tackling the core facts, spend less time explaining the dubious ones, and keep your argument simple – or else your approach may backfire.
Fun, engaging and equal parts thought-provoking, "Calling bullshit" is a timely course for young would-be scientists as well as lay people. It is neither too long nor too predictable content-wise. You can follow the course on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/callin_bull


[1] http://bit.ly/2vVpa7v
[2] http://bit.ly/2vVmuXn
[3] http://bit.ly/2vVcIoa
[4] http://bit.ly/2vVnQRX

by Zara Khan, MSc Student MedNeuro

This article originally appeared September 2017 in CNS Volume 10, Issue 3, Spirituality in Science

Islam: Spirituality and Mental Health

The World Health Organization defines health as "a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being…" [1]. At present, this definition does not include spirituality, though attempts have been made for its inclusion [2]. Studies that show positive effects of mindfulness meditation [3] provide the possibility of it being used as a therapeutic intervention (see also article on page 5). When it comes to mental health, the spiritual philosophy in Islam is often overlooked or not thoroughly delved-into. Islam is mostly taken as a religious dogma comprising of political, religious and legal doctrines without considering its spiritual and moral dimensions [4].

Do We Need Spirituality?
Ibn-e-Hazm (994-1064 AD), a famous Muslim polymath, remarked "I searched for a common goal amongst humankind, to which all would agree to strive for excellence. I have not found anything other than the vanquishing of anxiety" [5].  The decline in mental health has been dramatic in the past few decades, with rates of depression increasing from 1988-2007 in the US [6]. Furthermore, the incidence of suicide has increased almost 40% in the middle-aged population [6]. The results of a cross-cultural study indicated that while wealthy countries may score higher on a happiness scale, they scored lower than poor ones on perceived meaning in life [7].

Islamic prayers as form of spiritual purification

One of the core features of spirituality lies in man’s ability to extract meaning from the world. According to Ibn-e-Hazm, the ephemeral nature of the world drives a person into an existential crisis and the only way to achieve happiness is to return towards God Almighty [4]. In Islamic tradition, spirituality may involve pondering over the ayaat (signs) of the Almighty and getting inspired from them to lead a life of servitude. Signs such as the presence of trees may remind one of the temporary nature of life. The intricate features and behavior of birds and animals may inspire one to marvel over the accuracy, beauty, and wisdom of the creator. However, not all may interpret these signs in a spiritual context.

Imaging Spiritual Prayer
A preliminary study in 2015 attempted to uncover the neurophysiological effects of salah (prayer) [11]. Muslims performing salah and dhikr (remembrance) showed less frontal lobe activity (crucial in executive functioning). The study also compared subjects performing prayer with and without spiritual concentration (khushu). Those performing prayer in a ritualistic manner without a lot of spiritual focus did not display any changes in brain activity, while those performing prayer with more spiritual fervor showed less activity in the frontal lobe and more in the basal ganglia (involved in the reward system) and anterior cingulate gyrus (involved in mood) [11].

"Sabr" and Its Role in Depression
Positive psychology includes studies that correlate self-regulation and gratitude with a lower incidence of mental illness. Dr. Timothy Strauman has suggested clinical depression to be a consequence of self-dysregulation [8]. In Islamic tradition, this practice of self-regulation is called sabr and Ibn al-Qayyim (1292-1350 AD) describes it as restraining and building character [4]. He also argued that the past cannot be changed with sadness, but by contentment, gratitude, patience, and a firm belief that everything that happens occurs due to the will of God [9].
In Islam, there are numerous supplications to ward off anxiety and depression. One factor that might explain the reduction in anxiety and depression experienced by depressed people performing supplications could be due to supplication working as a spiritual therapy. This practice may produce neurochemical alterations that may decrease the need for pharmacological intervention (which does not undermine the efficacy of the latter) [10].

Source

The interesting aspect about supplication or du’aa is that it can be used as a powerful form of psychotherapy. The crux of many supplications is not a request, but rather admitting one’s helplessness and asking for the Almighty’s mercy. Surrendering oneself may offer liberty from the world and its tribulations because the individual leaves the matter in the hands of someone far more powerful than him or her [4].
Many supplications call on to the Almighty by using names and qualities that evoke feelings of awe. According to Jonathan Haidt, the reality of awe involves a two-step cognitive process: vastness (anything experienced by the mind that is larger than one’s self) and accommodation (upon experiencing vastness, the mind adjusts to assimilate new information) [12]. So, experiencing awe by calling on the Almighty provides contentment in times of adversity. Islam envisages trials and tribulations as opportunities for submitting to the Almighty and building character.
In Islam, spirituality is intertwined in different everyday rituals and serves to elevate not only the physical, but also the psychological well-being of an individual [13].

[1] http://bit.ly/2f3Sbe1
[2] Chuengsatiansup, Envir Impact Assessment Rev, 2003
[3] Chiesa and  Serretti,  Psycho Med, 2010
[4] http://bit.ly/2f4epfR
[5] Ibn Ḥazm. Akhlāq wa as-Sīr, p. 76.
[6] Smith, The power of meaning, p. 22.
[7] Oishi and Diener, Psycho Sci, 2013
[8] Strauman, Self and Identity, 2002
[9] Ibn al-Qayyim, Zād al-M’aād, vol 2. p. 325.
[10] Porto et al., J Neuropsychiatry & Clinical Neurosci, 2009
[11] Newberg et al., J Physiology, 2015
[12] Haidt and Keltner, Cognition & Emotion, 2003
[13] http://bit.ly/2hjgViR


By Zara Khan, MSc Student MedNeuro

This article originally appeared September 2017 in CNS Volume 10, Issue 3, Spirituality in Science